Posted by Jon​One of those frustrating bids recently. We forewarned the team; warmed them up with some background briefing information; gathered a core team to think through our likely strategy and story; pulled together as much relevant raw material as we could; built a plan (mindful that timescales were still not 100% clear).

The contributors were… well, if not raring to go, at least aware that the proposal was coming up, clear on their likely roles, and starting to juggle their other commitments accordingly.

And then the customer’s RFP was delayed. And delayed. And delayed again.

Even with well-qualified deals, sometimes pre-proposal planning efforts can turn into something a “cry wolf” scenario. It’s an interesting dilemma; as I wrote to this particular team, informing them of the latest delay:​

​As always, there’s a fine line with bids between:

(a) giving the team as much notice as possible – with the risk that timescales may slip, and

(b) waiting until the dates are definite but then giving you too little notice!

Sorry if the moving target here is proving confusing, but I’d still rather forewarn you as best I can rather than springing things on you last minute…

​Certainly my experience is that content contributors value early engagement over and above the occasional unexpected delay. It’s always easier for them to re-allocate any time they’ve set aside, back to their day jobs, than it is to try and carve out time for proposal work from an already-packed schedule.